General Electric has made a bid to buy the UK's largest medical imaging company, Amersham. The combined company will have combined revenues of US$13 billion (AUD$18.81 billion).

Amersham's board has recommended that shareholders accept the £5.7 billion all-stock offer.

The deal is still subject to regulatory approval, but GE hopes to gain approval from the European Commission and the US competition authorities within the first half of 2004.

The combination of the two companies will accelerate the development of imaging agents and diagnostics, GE said.

Amersham CEO Sir William Castell will become CEO of the new company, to be called GE Healthcare Technologies, and will also take the role of vice-president and member of the board of GE.

Amersham was formed in 1997 when Amersham International in the UK merged with Pharmacia Biotech, the life science business of Swedish company Pharmacia, and Nycomed Imaging of Norway. It employs more than 10,000 people worldwide, and had sales of £1.62 billion in 2002.

Amersham has three main business areas: medical diagnostics, which accounted for 59 per cent of sales in 2002, protein separations, responsible for 17 per cent of Amersham's 2002 sales, and discovery systems, at 24 per cent of sales.